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Thursday, 12 July, 2007

Real Streaming Music , Videos Using ORB

One of the best services I've been using on my N95 is ORB. In fact ..this software service works on any phone that has the ability to play streaming media ... Be it real media streams (usually supported by symbian handsets) or wmv streams (usually supported by the windows mobile range).And best of all....Its Frigging FREE !!Although you will need a broadband connection on your pc (or media server)and an unlimited (and fast enough) GPRS connection on your handset to make this work.

To use this awesome app ..you first have to download the orb installer from the website www.orb.comOnce you are through with the installation you can configure it as per your preferences. You can set the directories you have stored your respective media you want to stream or share.

If you have a router or are behind a firewall , do remember to unblock or port-forward the ports you are using for streaming real , 3gp or wmv streams.

After you have done this , you can head over to http://mycast.orb.comThis page will be your media interface to the web. All your shared media will be displayed here and you can decide if you want make your movies , mp3's public ..or just leave them as private so only you can access them. You can also add feeds from other sites such as youtube and dailymotion etc.

To access your media from your smartphone you have to key in the same url http://mycast.orb.com from your phone's browser. Once you log in...a much simplified and neater version of the mycast webpage will be displayed which is optimized for your device.

Each one of them have their respective submenus and even the option to watch internet videos and listen to internet radio.

The File browser tab acts just like windows explorer and you can actually explore the entire contents of your hard disk.

Another great ability is to add feeds via the mycast webpage on your pc. You can then access those feeds via your phones browser. You can add feeds on the weather , your flickr photo stream ..or any other rss or atom feed you like.

One of the best things about the orb page is the ability to set your streaming bandwidth ..or there even is the option to let the app detect it for you. You can even remotely restart the orb application which is running on your pc.

Another cool feature is that it even gets the album art embedded in mp3 files and generates thumbnails for video files too. This is truly a couch potato's dream ...and i'm really enjoying the experience of listening to streaming music ..and watching my movie collection on my huge nokia N95 screen from the comfort of my bed.

This app is the closest you can get to real streaming on your N95 using your local router ..or through your GPRS connection.Do try it out and let me know what you think of it .